Give me the benifit of your knowledge. I have seen a lot of discussion about it and I have even paid it but I don't know exactly how much it is. Does it vary by the rental company or the pick up and drop off countries? Is it different if i pick up a car in Germany and drop it in Italy vs picking up in France and dropping in Austria? Are the rates different in the Eastern European countries?
When people warn others to try to avoid the "big drop fees", How much are we really talking about?
How much is the Cross-Border drop fee for rental cars
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Yes, it can vary a lot.
It can be easily a couple hundred euros, or something more affordable like €50-100. Or some company will not allow it at all.
You have to read the fine print of each rental car company's terms & conditions.
Think logistics!
How much will it cost the vendor to send a person to pick up the car---time and expenses.
From Barcelona to Venice---a whole bunch--probably 500E.
From Lugano to Milan, a lot less---maybe 100E.
You can compute these costs on your own without having to wait for someone else to do it for you. Just plug in destinations into rental car websites and see what you get. Compare that to dropping off at the border and rebooking a car at other side of the border.
As Bob says...We were quoted over 500E for pickup in Lisbon, drop off in Barcelona. A cross border taxi ride was the answer.
You don't always get an indication of the cross border drop off fee on booking sites though. Sometimes you just get a message saying there will be one, but no indication of what it will be. Sometimes it is paid on collection of the car. To find out how much it will be you need to contact the company.
I have looked into European hire in the past for my husband and have never seen the one way fees listed.
My only experience of one way drop off fees was in the US when we were charged $500 to go from Chicago to LA back in 2002. We got $300 knocked of the one way fee because it was a California car returning home!
europcar lists the one-way fees on their website, I just checked. It doesn't itemize them, so you'd have to check the rates dropping in the same country or not. It looks to be around $300 between Italy and France, for example, but it could vary if you were dropping off far from the Italian border I suppose (I just compared Nice FR versus Genoa IT).
greg has it right for those 'good' rental companies.
I will stay away from companies that are vague.
I also know that with Hertz, Italy seems to be a sore point with them, or at least is used to be. In my contracts with them, there were pointed comments about insurance, etc... being voided if travel was in Italy.
Thank, now i am perfectly clear. It seems the common thread is to ask before you rent.
There is no single answer. It depends on:
Which two countries (drop offs may be higher in countries that comapnies prefer their cars stay out of - like Italy)
Which rental agency
What type of car (drop offs are often much higher for more upscale cars)
You need to shop carefully. And be aware that agencies may well not allow ars into estern euroep (Russia, Ukraine) or even some parts of central europe